Many people are not aware of how much it really takes to make a music song that will eventually become hit one day. What we see is how much money music stars make and how glamorous their lives are. Behind all that success there are serious numbers of dollars invested in music projects. So, that is why there are rules about copyrights because there are a lot of money invested in music.
When somebody steals tunes, they are not only insulting the music artist, but they are also, in some way, stealing money. On the other hand, imagine investing tons of money and get absolutely nothing in return because no one can guarantee success. However you should invest in getting a good set of headphones, audio reviews from AudioStance is the perfect place to check for comprehensive and objective reviews.
There are a lot of things you need to do that don’t concern making music itself, that will take for an album or a track to become successful. The basic thing you need is marketing. Without the fanbase, you really don’t have anyone to sell your music to. You must reach people if you want them to like you because if they don’t hear you, they can’t like you and they can’t buy your music.
But, real marketing costs money, if you want it to be professionally done. Of course, there are social media platforms that can help you, but it is hard to stand out in a sea of people who want to become artists. So, besides making the music, you might have costs around promoting your music.
So, why does it take so much money to make music? Because it is a complicated process. It is not enough just to be talented. You must go through all the steps of making music. Of course, there are a lot of technology available. A lot of (free or paid) software provide the possibility of making music, recording your voice or mixing it all up. But, of course, that is an amateur way of making music, or we can even say making music just for fun.
On the other hand, when it comes to creating professional, great music, it takes a lot more than just software. The process of making music goes through several phases. Regardless of the type of music, these are the phases of music-making. You can also see a plethora of objective music reviews here.
First, you need to do song writing. Song writing consists of making a rough version of the song in which you have the beginning, the middle and the end. It must have rhythm and melody. Today, there are songs with lyrics and without them. Those that have lyrics can be ruined by or improved by it. Good lyrics without many repetitions must follow the beat of the song, the singer’s unique voice and, of course, must be understandable.
The whole lyrics with the music should be pleasant to the ears of the listeners. Lyrics are important because some people pay more attention to the lyrics than to the music. This is the step where the artist’s true talent is drawn to the surface.
Secondly, you need arranging. Arranging is the phase in which you make the song more interesting and appealing to the listening. You arrange the melody, the rhythm and the lyrics all together into a coherent piece of art.
Thirdly, you need editing and mixing. In this phase, you should focus your energy on every beat and do the polishing of the whole song. If there are high pitches, glitches and everything that sounds bad, it should be removed. Basically, smoothen every instrument and every word.
This is where you need to emphasize or leave out some instruments or lyrics parts that stick out and don’t organically belong within the song. Of course, there are also a bunch of little things that are to be done in between or as a part of these stages. But, basically, every song goes through these stages.
If we sum everything above said, you can only imagine what kind of work it is when it comes to big music stars. They are always under pressure to make a great album. Every great album must be followed by an even better one and it is hard to fulfil the expectations of the public. For that reason, they are investing a ton of money into making music. Over the decades that situation resulted in some crazy sums spent on album-making. Here are the 10 most expensive music albums ever made:
- Michael Jackson – Invincible
Released: October 30, 2001
Genre: R&B, pop, soul
Price: 30 million dollars
The first place is Michael Jackson. Invincible was the last released album before his death in 2009. The first single “You Rock My World”, Jackson performed at Madison Square Garden on September 10th, 2001. It was the perfect announcement of the album, which was later rated as the most expensive album of all time.
- Guns N’ Roses – Chinese Democracy
Released: November 23, 2008
Genre: Hard-rock, industrial rock electronic rock, nu-metal
Price: 13 million dollars
Chinese Democracy is the album by American hard rock band Guns N’ Roses. During the process of making the album, the band faced some legal issues. Also, the band wanted to make the perfect album and they did it, but the price was too high. With costs of 13 million dollars, it became one of the most expensive rock albums ever made.
- Chris Gaines – Greatest Hits
Released: September 28, 1999
Genre: Pop, pop-rock, alternative rock
Price: 5 million dollars
Greatest Hits also titled Garth Brooks in… The Life of Chris Gaines is an album by American artist Garth Brooks. Although Garth invested a lot of money on this album, it had disappointing sales results compared to his previous work. It reached number two on the Billboard 200 chart.
- Def Leppard – Hysteria
Released: August 3, 1987
Genre: Hard rock, pop-metal
Price: 4.5 million dollars
Produced by Robert John, Hysteria was at the top of the Billboard 200 and the UK Albums Chart in 2000. The process of creating the album took about three years because Rick Allen lost his left arm when his Corvette flipped off a country road. In the end, the cost of the album was 4.5 million dollars.
- Korn – Untouchables
Released: June 11, 2002
Genre: Nu metal alternative, metal
Price: 4 million dollars
The most popular nu-metal band, Korn invested 4 million dollars in their album called Untouchables. That is the fifth studio album of the band, which is sold around 1.4 million copies in the US. The album was completed after two years of recording. Because of the recording and living expenses of their crew, the total cost of the album was too high.
- My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy – Kanye West
Released: November 22, 2010
Genre: Hip hop
Price: 2.5 million dollars
My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy was produced mainly by Kanye, but a variety of high-experienced producers were also included in the project. The names such as Mike Dean, No I.D., Jeff Bhasker, RZA, S1, Bink, and DJ Frank E were responsible for the album’s success. The album is a mix of soul, baroque, electro and rock and it triggers some interesting topics such as consumer culture, race and the idealism of the American dream.
- The Darkness – One Way Ticket to Hell…And Back
Released: November 28, 2005
Genre: Hard rock, glam rock
Price: 1.8 million dollars
One Way Ticket to Hell…And Back was produced by Roy Thomas Baker. He is an English record producer and songwriter who has worked a lot with the band Queen. This album had three singles and one of them reached number 8 on the UK Singles Chart. That was the song called “One Way Ticket”.
- The Black Album – Metallica
Released: August 12, 1991
Genre: Heavy metal
Price: 1.5 million dollars
The Black Album by Metallica is their fifth studio album. In case you don’t know, “The Unforgiven” and “Nothing Else Matters” are the songs from this record. Apart from these two big hits, the band released other singles such as “Enter Sandman”, “Wherever I May Roam”, and “Sad but True”. The making of the album was troubled because of conflicts between the band members and their producer Bob Rock. However, the price of the album was 1.5 million dollars.
- Fleetwood Mac – Tusk
Released: October 12, 1979
Genre: Pop-rock
Price: 1.4 million dollars
Compared to the previous records of this British-American rock band, Tusk wasn’t commercially successful. Although the band travelled the world to promote this album, it was sold in only four million copies. On the other hand, the process of making and promoting the album was very high. The total price was 1.4 million dollars.
- Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club – The Beatles
Released: May 26, 1967
Genre: Rock, pop, psychedelia, art rock
Price: 416,000 dollars
Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band by the Beatles was spent 27 weeks at number one on the UK Albums Chart and 15 weeks at number one on the Billboard chart in the US. It was a huge success, but it had a price. The total amount of money invested in this album was 416,000 dollars.
